Along the east coast of Uruguay and southern Brazil there are quite a few ships heading to and from Rio de la Plata. It is really nice having the AIS (Automated Identification System) when traffic is near, as you get a display of the ship's position, course, speed and name. Knowing the name of the ship makes it much easier to call them on the VHF to confirm which side they are passing or overtaking on if they look to be coming close. I called a Brazilian freighter the other night to confirm how what side they would overtake us on (and to confirm that they had seen Issuma on their radar). The freighter's crew had already computed our course and speed (their radar likely does most of this for them), and, while overtaking closer than I'd have preferred at 20 knots (a few hundred metres), there was no danger.

Clicking on the map on the right side of this page should show the most recently updated position.

So your hopping north up the coast instead of taking a big circle around the the S. Atlantic high to get back to N. America? Will make for a lot of great blogging and interesting reading for us armchair sailors.
Keep up the good work!

Seals

RichardSat Mar 28 10:00:00 EDT 2009

A couple of seals came over to play by the boat. Though it looks more like a dolphin in the picture, it is a seal that is turning over while surfacing.

Punta Del Este has a lot of foreign yachts, mostly registered in the Delaware, USA. I was surprised about this, as many were powerboats that did not look like they had motored down from the USA. It seems there are no taxes on foreign yachts in Uruguay, no matter how long they stay in Uruguay (most other countries will charge import taxes on boats that have been in their country for a certain number of months), as long as they arrive in Uruguay by water (even if only across the Rio de la Plata from Argentina).

In fact there is a tax but very low to international standards. It is related to the volume of the vessel and it is paid once per year. I am talking of about 100-150 USD per year for a 30 ft vessel.

Cheers

Punta del Este

RichardWed Mar 25 18:00:00 EDT 2009, Punta del Este, Uruguay

Punta del Este is a very pretty and pleasant place on the NE corner of Rio de la Plata. It is a very popular place for (mostly wealthy) people to vacation.

Now that summer is over and children are back in school, many shops are closed, and it is quiet and peaceful.

In the picture, Issuma is at anchor in front of the Conrad hotel. There are moorings and docks to tie up at in Punta del Este, and there is also a big anchorage.

The members of Yacht Club Punta del Este, and especially their Commodore, Horacio Garcia Pastori, are extremely hospitable to visiting sailors and have a very nice restaurant overlooking the picturesque harbor.

When I was in downtown Montevideo (where the pictures are from), on a Saturday afternoon, it was mostly quiet. Most shops close Saturday afternoon, so only in the tourist areas were there many people (some, not really many) walking around.

Montevideo is a pleasant, relaxed and friendly place, as is the rest of Uruguay. The city is big enough that you can get pretty much anything you might need.